Quotes of the day

posted at 10:41 pm on March 13, 2014 by Allahpundit

For months and months, for example, I’ve been demanding facts — not shibboleths or epithets — from the anti-Mitch McConnell brigade…

For more than a decade, Sen. Mitch McConnell has stood alone in fighting unconstitutional campaign finance laws, earning him the undying enmity of The New York Times…

As minority leader, McConnell managed to get every single Republican in the Senate to vote against Obamacare — even “Strange New Respect” Republicans like John McCain, Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham. No other Republican leader has ever accomplished anything like that…

McConnell tricked Obama into accepting the only spending cuts to the federal government in more than half a century…

On the most important issue — immigration — McConnell not only voted against Marco Rubio’s amnesty bill, but at the moment, he may be the only thing standing between us and a scheme to import 30 million new Democratic voters. As House Speaker John Boehner works feverishly behind the scenes to push amnesty through, McConnell recently announced that there would be no immigration bill in 2014 (thank almighty God)…

Here’s the counter-argument from the anti-McConnell crowd: HE’S A RINO! HE’S AN ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICAN! HE’S BEEN A TERRIBLE LEADER! MITCH LIED, KIDS DIED!

Ladies and Gentlemen, there you have all the attributes of a mob: Slogans in lieu of logic and evidence, beliefs impenetrable by facts, emotional hatred of the “enemy” and the acceptance of wild contradictions. Isn’t Paul Ryan dreamy? Let’s run Ted Cruz for president! We love Reagan … But we hate McConnell for voting with Reagan!

Nothing good has ever been accomplished by a mob.

***

Finally, while I appreciate the review of Mitch McConnell’s legislative record, there’s that other record that is less convenient. No, no, not the multiple votes to increase the debt ceiling. No, not the multiple votes that funded Obamacare. No, not McConnell’s vote opposing returning power to the states to control their own highway programs. No, I’m not even referring to Mitch McConnell’s vote to send the Senate’s amnesty plan to the floor of the Senate for consideration — something he could have rallied his side to oppose through a filibuster.

Instead, I’m talking about the candidates McConnell has supported instead of the conservatives.

Would Ann have preferred Trey Grayson over Rand Paul? Grayson is now working with an anti-gun Democratic super PAC to elect Democrats. Mitch McConnell supported Trey Grayson.

Would Ann have preferred Charlie Crist over Rubio? She and I certainly did not like Rubio’s immigration plan — the one McConnell voted to get out of committee to the floor of the Senate. But would she have preferred Charlie Crist, who was and remains to the left of Rubio on the issue? Mitch McConnell supported Charlie Crist.

Would Ann have preferred Arlen Specter to Pat Toomey like Mitch McConnell did?

What about David Dewhurst over Ted Cruz?

What about Bob Bennett? Does Ann think conservatives, led by the Senate Conservatives Fund, should have left in the Senate the Republican who helped author the federal individual mandate that went into Obamacare? His replacement was Mike Lee. Would Ann really join Mitch McConnell wanting to keep Bob Bennett in the Senate over Mike Lee…

Mr. McConnell is not only an incumbent senator who represents the party opposed to the White House in a midterm election, but he also comes from a state that opposes the president. Since 1956, only seven senators in these circumstances have lost re-election. The last time was in 1998, when John Edwards defeated Senator Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina.

But 2014 is not 1998. Back then, President Bill Clinton’s approval rating was in the mid-60s. Today, President Obama’s ratings are mired in the low 40s. Kentucky is also not North Carolina, which only narrowly voted against Mr. Clinton. Kentucky is an extremely favorable state for a Republican candidate: It voted for Romney and McCain by an average of 25 points to the right of the country.

Campaigns tend to move partisans toward their respective corners. Campaign advertisements, messages, and even gaffes, emphasize the ideological differences between the candidates and polarize voters along party lines. Mr. McConnell will spend the next eight months reminding voters that he’s the president’s most reliable adversary, and that control of the Senate is at stake. That message seems likely to resonate with Kentucky’s anti-Obama electorate.

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You left out “When” an equally important question from an purely aeronautical perspective.

It is important to understand that aircraft though controlled flight, still follow certain basic ballistic characteristics. The most important in the case of an aircraft, is fuel capacity. Fuel capacity indicates potential range.

If you know what amount of fuel it was carrying when it took off, what it’s consumption rate is, and how long it had been in flight before it disappeared, then you can calculate it maximum flight distance from it’s last known confirmed position.

That distance then becomes the radius of your search area. Divide the last known air speed by the minute, each minute becomes a radii of your potential crash site.

Assuming that it was in fact a crash, then direction is almost irrelevant as it will fall within one of the radii defined by speed and time in air.

Obviously the longer it remained airborne the greater the search area. Assuming that the aircraft was traveling at 500 miles per hour and remained airborne for 10 minutes, that results in a search area of 157 odd square miles. Every additional minute it remained airborne increases the search area by 15 odd square miles.

President Barack Obama finally bowed to pressure from immigration rights activists and signaled on Thursday that he may change his deportation policy.

Obama asked Jeh Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, to conduct the review, the White House said.

The White House made the announcement after Obama met for more than an hour Thursday evening with three leading members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus amid a furor in the Latino and immigration-rights community over the number of deportations of undocumented immigrants during his administration.

No! No! My apologies. I was just goofing around. You were being serious! Real opera is serious stuff–it takes years of training. It’s not something to be taken lightly, so my apology for doing so. Personally, I like hearing opera singers, but I’ve never been to an actual opera performance. :-)

CBS News and ABC News, citing unidentified U.S. officials, said American investigators believe that two communications systems were shut down separately on the flight deck of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, suggesting the aircraft did not suffer catastrophic failure.

The data reporting system, the network reported, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The transponder — which transmits location and altitude — shut down at 1:21 a.m.

“The data reporting system was shut down at 1.07 am and the transponder was turned off at 1.21 am just after the the pilot signed off to Malaysian air traffic controllers with ‘All right, good night,’ and before the Boeing 777 apparently changed course and turned west.”

Obama calls for review of deportations
President Barack Obama finally bowed to pressure from immigration rights activists and signaled on Thursday that he may change his deportation policy.
Obama asked Jeh Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, to conduct the review, the White House said.
The White House made the announcement after Obama met for more than an hour Thursday evening with three leading members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus amid a furor in the Latino and immigration-rights community over the number of deportations of undocumented immigrants during his administration.

kcewa on March 14, 2014 at 1:38 AM

Yep. And how dare they refer to these activists for illegal aliens as “immigrant rights groups”?

And now the number of illegal aliens in this country is greater than the number of unemployed Americans:http://tinyurl.com/mcg7j5b

People who align with the Tea Party need to make a choice. Either they are GOP or should stand on their principles and form a third party. They are not the majority of the GOP by a long shot. The GOP is getting smart by quietly refusing to stand behind them in local elections/primaries. Why throw your money at a group that aspires to office by taking insisting on inflexible ideology in a system that was designed to work with some compromise?

The GOP is getting smart by quietly refusing to stand behind them in local elections/primaries. Why throw your money at a group that aspires to office by taking insisting on inflexible ideology in a system that was designed to work with some compromise?

Maybe me my memory fails me and Mitch was never the majority leader. Anyway he wold have been less vindictive then this Reid. You probably can tell I detest this man as much as I detest the president.
garydt on March 13, 2014 at 11:47 PM

I don’t remember Reid trashing members of his own party, or threatening to punch them in the nose

People who align with the Tea Party need to make a choice. Either they are GOP or should stand on their principles and form a third party. They are not the majority of the GOP by a long shot.
Bradky on March 14, 2014 at 3:07 AM

Hmmm .. It seems like you purists need a history lesson. Look at what happened in 2006, 2008, and 2012 without the tea party, and what happened in 2010 with the tea party. Maybe you also need to look at what happened on Tuesday in Florida CD 13. Without the Tea Party, the Neostatists lose. For 7 years you Neostatists had the Presidency, Senate, and the House of Reps. What happened? You grew the government. As a result, we got the Tea Party. So if you want someone to blame, go into your bathroom, look at the wall with the shiny surface on it, and look at it

I don’t remember Reid trashing members of his own party, or threatening to punch them in the nose

Brock Robamney on March 14, 2014 at 5:43 AM

No they do it behind the scenes. They have quietly purged their party of most real Democrats. There are still a few who for some odd reason still go along with these marxist crooks. I guess they have nowhere else to go.

Hmmm .. It seems like you purists need a history lesson. Look at what happened in 2006, 2008, and 2012 without the tea party, and what happened in 2010 with the tea party.

Brock Robamney on March 14, 2014 at 5:53 AM

Let me offer just one adjustment to urinalysis: the Tea Party voters have always existed. We are loyal conservatives who vote 100% Republican and lobbying aggressively for a conservative Republican party. When the reality of a statist Republican party becomes inescapable, we agitate to remove the liberal offenders. This is called Democracy.

As for squish/RINO Bradky, he tends to go overboard in his criticism of the right. It’s a RINO thing. Even though the “Tea Party” voter is exactly who the Republicans claim they are representing, we are somehow the enemy when we demand that they honor their campaign lies and stop voting for amnesty, increasing spending, and making deals for their rich donor buddies.

The difference in between Conservative commentators and freak liberals? Writers like you aren’t afraid to invoke Kennedy. Just like there were many, many things from the Reagan years liberals should look to and get a warm fuzzy over. But they detest him. Their partisan politics make it impossible to see anything but hate for anything not progressive. Great article.

For months and months, for example, I’ve been demanding facts — not shibboleths or epithets — from the anti-Mitch McConnell brigade…

FACT: When the dust settled from the government shutdown. After the surrender weasels caved and gave the Democrats everything they had been demanding. After the GOP leadership had openly attacked Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. One Senator found himself with millions in federal funding for a dam. That Senator was Mitch McConnell.

And just why didn’t McConnell let his party members continue using parliamentary procedures to slow the Senate to a crawl with entire readouts of Obamacare which would INCLUDE the original language and then Reid’s gutting of the prior language with new language using the prior bill as a shell?

Oh, wait!

That would mean he was committed to NOT seeing Obamacare pass the Senate.

That would break up Senate comity and chumminess amongst his D pals.

Can’t have that!

That would be effective LEADERSHIP. And it was missing in the House, too.

(Reuters) – A U.S. defense contractor in Hawaii was expected to plead guilty on Thursday to charges he passed national defense secrets, including classified information on joint training and planning exercises with South Korea, to a Chinese woman with whom he was romantically involved, prosecutors said.

From May of that year through December 2012, according to the affidavit, Bishop passed national defense secrets to the woman on several occasions, including classified information about nuclear weapons and the planned deployment of U.S. strategic nuclear systems.

Other secrets included information on the United States’ ability to detect foreign governments’ low- and medium-range ballistic missiles, and information on the deployment of U.S. early warning radar systems in the Pacific Rim.

Would you want to be a passenger on a plane with the two pilots names being Zaharie Ahmad Shah and Fariq Abdul Hamid?

“The data reporting system was shut down at 1.07 am and the transponder was turned off at 1.21 am just after the the pilot signed off to Malaysian air traffic controllers with ‘All right, good night,’ and before the Boeing 777 apparently changed course and turned west.”

LOL – long time no see. Squish? Maybe. But what is the point of slamming dem policies at a site where most people despise them. Kind of redundant. The GOP has lost its ability to be strategic — the whole lot of us have some ownership of that, whether identifying as TP or as establishment. It cost us control of the senate in 12.

Not stating his intentions doesn’t mean he is not doing it behind the scenes. He is as slithery as Harry Reid, and as long as he is leader he will continue to punch the tea party in the nose. He has to go

When Obama asked for the 1st debt ceiling increase and declared he would NOT accept any proposed budget cuts – just before, for the 1st time in U.S. history, the U.S. Credit Rating was cut, Mitch McConnell refused to work with Boehner to come up with a plan. Instead, he worked alone to come up with his own plan, undermied Boehner’s plan, and split the party rather than unify it. Obama got everything he wanted, and America’s Credit Rating was down-graded! **@$$!

McConnell stepped out on the CPAC stage carrying a gun, to try to impress Conservatives, and then attacked a group of Conservatives within the GOP, declaring he was ready to CRUSH the TEA Party!

HOW STUPID CAN ONE SMUG, WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT ELITIST SOB BE, ATTACKING CONSERVATIVES WITHIN HIS PARTY, SPLITTING AND DIVIDING THE GOP RIGHT BEFORE A CRITICAL ELECTION IN WHICH THE GOAL IS TO TAKE BACK THE SENATE?!
— In order to win the Senate, the GOP needs to try to WIN the loyalty and support of NEW members / groups – try to win over blacks, Latinos, men, women, Republicans, Libertarians, DEMOCRATS…and here McConnell is declaring to members of his OWN party, “If you don’t agree with the Washington Establishment GOP then we don’t want you in our party, we are not going to listen to you, we are not going to REPRESENT you…in fact, we are going to do our best to crush and SILENCE you!” AGAIN, how F*ing STUPID can one man – a supposed ‘leader’ be?!

I have never been a “Republican’ or a ‘Democrat’. I am a Conservative AMERICAN – American 1st, not party-1st. I will always vote for the best candidate, no matter if he/she is a Republican or Democrat. (By coincdence integrity/morality/faithful t their oaths of office, 98% of the time that turns out to be a Republican.) That being said, I would not vote for Mitch McConnell if I was covered in gasoline and a guy holding a lit match told me to vote for him or he would ‘light me up’! That SOB can ki$$ by @$$! If it was ever clear that a politician needs to go it is this dumb, elitist b@st@rd!

I hope there will be a TEA Party Challenger for his seat and the TEA Party ROCKS HIS WORLD by booting him from office! God know the last person who needs to become the new Senate Majority Leader is this POS!

Jolly may have won in Florida, but one important lesson should have been learned by leaders/politicians within the GOP. The race was so close, NOT because Jolly’s opponent won so many votes she nearly caught up. no – it was because LIBERTARIANS took enough votes from Jolly to make the race close.

Libertarians are tired of weak, cowardly, GOP like McConnell – politicians who make it hard to tell the difference between them and Democrats, politicians who do not listen to those they are suppose to represent. They are tired of PsOS like McConnell who tell members within their party they are not welcome, they will not be represented, and will be silenced. They are tired of watching Democrats/the President violate both the Constitution and law over and over while gutless, self-serving Republicans ignore their oaths of office – to protect and defend the Constitution, and do nothing!

If politicians, like McConnell – especially after his CPAC ‘declaration of war’ against the TEA Party, do not reach out to Libertarians, the TEA Party, and others they will watch these otricized groups take votes against the Republican party, causing them to lose some of these critical election!

If you want to win the majority of these elections, if you want to win the Senate and Hold the House, the GOP needs to:
– Make Obamacare and the fact that the DNC were the only ones to vote for it a major campaign issue. Make the fact that the Democratic Party engaged in Non-representative tyranical governance py passing this (and more) against the majority will of the people.
– Make the on-going massive number of Constitutional violations and the Democratic Party Senators covering / protecting Obama and allowing them to continue – make a return to protecting, adhering to, and governing according to the Constitution a major issue.
– Make a massive issue of how there has been NO offical BUDGET – required every year by law – since Democrats took over the House/Senate / since Obama took office as President…make the Obstruction of the legislative process by Harry Reid and Democratic Party Senators…a major issue.

Let me offer just one adjustment to urinalysis: the Tea Party voters have always existed. We are loyal conservatives who vote 100% Republican and lobbying aggressively for a conservative Republican party. When the reality of a statist Republican party becomes inescapable, we agitate to remove the liberal offenders. This is called Democracy.

As for squish/RINO Bradky, he tends to go overboard in his criticism of the right. It’s a RINO thing. Even though the “Tea Party” voter is exactly who the Republicans claim they are representing, we are somehow the enemy when we demand that they honor their campaign lies and stop voting for amnesty, increasing spending, and making deals for their rich donor buddies.

AP, are you seriously trying to sell McConnell as a conservative? Years ago, that may have been true, but not even a close call today:

“In a rare moment of candor for a career politician, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told the New York Times last week that his goal is to defeat conservative candidates across the country.”

Bmore, that was just a reply to you having watched Faust. In Faust it was the moment of toiling in the soil that made him happiest, and say “Beautiful moment, do not pass away!“…it’s different for all, and some never find the moment.

As an actual Kentucky voter I will be casting my vote in the GOP primary for Mitch McConnell and all of you commenters from outside of Kentucky who don’t like him can go hang. The man knows how to play the game and doesn’t believe in cutting off his nose to spite his face. If Blevins somehow manages to pull of an upset, I’ll stay home. Or maybe even vote for Alison Grimes. Why not? It’s what you idiotic Tea partiers threaten to do all the time.

Ideologues who would rather have a minority in the senate made up of 40 hardcore conservatives than a solid majority made up of 40 hardcore conservatives, 10 -15 senators with ACU ratings of 80% plus and A ratings from the NRA, and another 5- 10 RINOs are morons. Morons who would apparently be happier living under a Federal government run completely amuck with no brakes at all than to have tools to beat back the worst liberal excesses.

As an actual Kentucky voter I will be casting my vote in the GOP primary for Mitch McConnell and all of you commenters from outside of Kentucky who don’t like him can go hang. The man knows how to play the game and doesn’t believe in cutting off his nose to spite his face. If Blevins somehow manages to pull of an upset, I’ll stay home. Or maybe even vote for Alison Grimes. Why not? It’s what you idiotic Tea partiers threaten to do all the time.

Dukeboy01 on March 14, 2014 at 1:02 PM

See the bolded section and really watch your nose. Thanks for the ironies.

Hmmm…. So who is the Purist now…. We keep hearing from these Neostatists that we have to fall in line and vote for their guy, but if their guy loses the primary, then he will take his ball and go home. So why should we support McConnell again?

Hmmm…. So who is the Purist now…. We keep hearing from these Neostatists that we have to fall in line and vote for their guy, but if their guy loses the primary, then he will take his ball and go home. So why should we support McConnell again?